2013 365-12

This week marked the official beginning of Spring. Since I was completely lost for ideas at the start of the week I thought that I should maybe take shots with a spring feel or theme. Luckily I have a few little plants starting to sprout around the house.

18/03/13

Two little tubs of tomato seedlings growing on the kitchen window. I've just thinned them out and am aiming for maybe 6-8 plants in total to go out into the greenhouse once the risk of frost has passed. Hoping I have a better crop of tomatoes than last year's disappointing performance.

 19/03/13

Outside my kitchen door is a bush which produces lovely yellow flowers. I see it every morning when I have a smoke and let the dog out. This morning was the first time that I noticed that the flowers were starting to return, and here's the proof.

20/03/13

This is a weird plant that was left behind in the house when I moved in. It does strange things, produces strange flowers and I'm just not sure what it is. I don't know where the water came from, but it seemed like a nice picture to try and take.

21/03/13

These are my pepper seedlings which have been slow to sprout but are getting there. I have some sweet peppers (above) and also some chilli seedlings; again I'm aiming for maybe 6 plants in the greenhouse come May.

22/03/13

Friday brought a rather serious dunt to my spring-like feelings. 3-4 inches of snow had fallen overnight, the school I was travelling to had been closed and I nearly went on my arse trying to get to the car. Those are my size 11 foot prints at 7.30 this morning.

23/03/13

Snow continues, effectively knocking my spring ideas on the head. Not be deterred (and still feeling kinda springy) I bought a bunch of flowers when doing some shopping and had a go at photographing them, then adding textures and patterns in post-processing. I'm happy enough with these as a first effort although I suspect there's more possibilities here that I'm not getting just yet.

24/03/13

2013 365-9

And they're off, racing into week nine of this 365 project like there's no tomorrow. Ok - maybe not. It's been a bit slow this week. although I am still in remarkably good form.

25/02/13

200m lens, tripod and cable release set up in the back garden today to see what I could get in terms of the birds coming to visit my bird feeder. Just the usual suspects I'm afraid but nice to look at anyway.

26/02/13

Bunch of flowers, window, moon rising behind. A reminder of a very pleasant evening with some truly nice people.

27/02/13

When I picked Sarah up from school this afternoon, I found that the school playground hand been ringed by thousands of pennies arranged in a neat line. The P7 pupils were doing this as a charity fundraising event. Small but mighty. 

28/02/13

This was taken tonight using a maglite torch suspended from the cross piece of a backdrop stand. The room was blacked out and the camera was set on the ground with a wide angle lens (about 24mm) attached. I used bulb mode, f22, ISO 100 and shutter speeds of around 60-90 seconds. The light trails produced by this were then layered in photoshop with a coloured gradient to produce the final picture. Very spirograph, for those old enough to remember spirographs.

1/03/13

Spring is in the air. Longer days, warmer weather and the first of March. This was a little snowdrop from Stormont estate this afternoon.

2/03/13

Simply Sarah, hanging upside down from monkey bars in the park. Turned upside down of course.

3/03/13

Sunday morning routine. Ironing my shirts while listening to Sunday Sequence on Radio Ulster with William Crawley. I enjoy the strange combination of repetitive activity and philosophical discussion coupled with coffee and smokes. Please don't judge me on the basis of my shirts - they cheer me up when I'm feeling down.